Ghost stories, haunted places, and the paranormal from the mid-western United States including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

In 1858, two monks arrived in Atchison, Kansas and set up a boarding school for boys on a rise overlooking the Missouri River. They started off hosting just a half a dozen students. Heavy wagon traffic, with settlers heading west, kept the town very busy and some chose to settle in Atchison. Within a year or two, the boarding school grew into St. Benedict's College. In the 1970s, the school combined with the Mount St. Scholastica College for women, resulting in Benedictine College. Many students have come and gone through Benedictine, but the monks who originally founded the school, never left! And, they have a few ghostly friends that hang out with them.

Phantom monks are thought to haunt Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas

Atchison is considered one of the most haunted towns in Kansas if not the country. And Benedictine is a big source of some of those hauntings. Over the years dozens of students have reported strange encounters at the school.

Benedictine College overlooks the Missouri River on the highlands of Atchison, Kansas, one of the most haunted towns in the mid-western United States.

Little Boy in Blue

Some on campus say they have seen a little boy wandering the walkways of the campus. He wears a blue T-shirt and shorts and seems to bounce playfully along around all over campus. Students have reported seeing this little boy in blue a lot. However, he is always wearing the same blue T-short and the same pair of shorts which leads many to believe that this particular little boy is not of this world at all!

Memorial Hall

A young woman was in her closet one day deciding which clothes she was going to wear that day. When she turned, to exit, she discovered that the door had been closed behind her. It was apparent to her that her roommate had entered the room and was playing a joke on her, locking her in somehow. After calling for her roommate to let her out, there was no response. She then began screaming in earnest to get out, banging loudly on the door. Finally someone heard her and came to her rescue. As it turned out, someone had moved a heavy dresser in front of the closet door. And when her roommate returned, she exclaimed that she was not the one who did it. And how would she move that heavy dresser, unnoticed? The young woman never did find out how the dresser moved itself in front of the door. What is really spooky is there could be a logical explanation for this poltergeist activity, it is rumored that once upon a time a student gave birth to a child in a closet in Memorial Hall. However, the infant died in the closet. Many residents of the hall have reported hearing the sounds of giggling children, and some have even felt the sensation of a child crawling into bed with them!

Benedictine College, haunted by the monks who founded the school.

Ferrell Hall

The original building used as a monastery by the monks at Benedictine was Ferrell Hall. It is thought that one of the founders or both could be haunting this building. Over the years it was converted to a dormitory and many students report hearing and seeing some very strange things. A very loud pounding noise can be heard by many, seemingly coming out of the walls. However, no one has ever been able to determine the source. Many students have heard disembodied footsteps in the hallway. And several students have head footsteps walking down their hallway and stopping outside their door. They open the door only to find and empty hallway!

Benedictine Hall

Perhaps the nastiest haunting of all buildings on campus took place in this building. A group of students were said to be attempting to make contact with the netherworld by use of an Ouija Board when one of the participants is thought to have become possessed by a demon. It got to be so bad that the priests on campus were forced to perform an exorcism on the young man.

Benedictine Hall, when it was standing, was one of the most haunted buildings on the campus of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas

The ghost of a former monk is said to walk the halls of the fourth floor at nights. Many have reported seeing a cloaked figure that seemed unlike any other, he was semi-transparent! It is thought that the monk was the college's former barber who died in a fire in the 1930's. His old barber chair remained in the building. It would be difficult to make a ghost hunt of your own however, because Benedictine Hall is no longer. The historic edifice, becoming to run down to maintain, had it's contents auctioned off and was demolished in 2004.

Most of the spirits of Benedictine College are friendly and keep to themselves. Thousands and thousands have passed through this college and no harm has come to anyone. In fact, the school is considered to be one of the best in the United States. So as the Phantom Monks of Benedictine go, they bid you... welcome!

Disclaimer

The ghost stories, hauntings, paranormal activities, paranormal events, and haunted tales told on these pages are stories that have been passed from person to person and as all folktales go, some facts may have been inadvertently left out of the story, new facts added, or an entirely different version of a story that one may have heard elsewhere. We have done our best to verify these stories have more than one account and many cases the accounts are combined to give the best information and reading experience possible to you the reader. These are in fact only stories so try not to take it too personally if the story you have read is not identical to the one you heard. If any individual would like to add their version or experiences, feel free to leave a comment. If the account is acceptable as in non-offensive in any way and enhances the related story, it will be published. Thank you for reading!

A word of caution: Most places listed on this site are private property and requires permission from the land owner to investigate any haunting, otherwise you are trespassing! Please be respectful in your ghost hunting adventures!

Reading references for each story include a mix of: Wikipedia; ShadowLands; AssociatedContent; PrairieGhosts; LegendsOfAmerica; and Strange USA.